Pranav Amrute's thoughts on entrepreneurship, internet, life and anything random

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One of the well-known services in AI/ML stack (artificial intelligence & machine learning) of cloud computing is transcribing (speech to text) the audio and analyzing it.

While cleaning up my phone, I realised, that it has piled up a lot of voice recordings that I did on various conferences & seminars I attended. Recording the speeches/discussions directly on phone, is a quick way of taking notes, which you can refer later & if you label it & make a transcript, it’s even better for indexing.
Thus, my experiments with Transcription services on the cloud started! (I wonder whether Evernote or OneNote has transcribe feature which converts speech-to-text on-the-go on mobile).

I had to trim a 45 minutes long audio file to 1 min. sample & convert it to mp3 (using VLC Player). To keep things simple there’s only 1 speaker talking in the audio file, although the job is not simple enough for machines, you can listen to sample audio (and try to text it in comment section!)

Google Cloud pleased me as it supports long range of input languages as audio source, so I could choose Indian English, but on the downside, it only supported 1 min audio file for free-demo. (for longer files, you may have to call APIs & write a code). Here’s the result from Google:

150
the world's most interesting thing and I think you are the advantage of building for
India and building the world have a domestic economy is big enough for you to grow
as a starter and global market also I don't need to both the option that I want to
talk to someone is very difficult to the reason is these words between is true that
was open find out the world after appoint the world can give the field of India
can eat Universal pain

But it gives different results if you select US English as source language, much better if selected model is ‘video’ (other options are phone call, search/command, default) Video model is not available for IN-EN.

We are around 250 in India. to the point that
the world could have come in and they want to be locked up all over the top again,
but more importantly I think is huge opportunity for startups the third and most
interesting thing and I think you can speak about the relevant is after the DND
Festival we spend some time at Israel is India has this unique Vantage of building
for India and building for the world. We have a domestic economy, which is big
enough for you to grow as a start-up and it has a and a global market.
Also, I think we need a bill for both the opportunity that I only focus on one is
very defensive because the reason is these words between these two that what
have different kind navigation for the world to start learning after a point
because India will be the world's and usually right so the because the scene of
India can be Universal game.

If you check out AWS AI/ML/DL stack, it gives you ready to use tools such as Rekognition, Translate, Polly which can process the input without requiring any coding. What we need in our case is: AWS Transcribe which reads audio files stored in S3 and export the text in json format. The best part is you do not need to write any code for this nor there’s 1 min. restriction for audio. But it understands only US-EN and Spanish, which did not give great results.

Get it. So with that the ones they want.
So we have all but one party is huge over to you first. The most impressive thing.
And i think you could spend some time. Is there? He has a unique case beginning for
the world. You have a domestic big enough to stop it and the opportunity only
focused on one very defensive because of easiness. These words that was a different
world will start learning after a point because and you two guys with big feet,
you know what?

IBM Watson is a dark horse here, showed relatively fewer errors. But if you choose British English, the result was full of ‘yeah’, which is funny (and stupid!)

We get 150. This. For the one that. The one. The what we love to help all those
online games at 148 is huge opportunity for stocks the most interesting thing
and I think you would be more than enough for the effects of the sense of time
and was there. Is media has unique blockades probability for India and before
the war. Yeah domestic economy big enough for you to go in the stock and it
has a. And over the hallways like the need to clear the board the all the Jews
that only focus on one is very different too because the reason is these lawyers
or differently from the way the stock offer appointed with nearly the word off
and you could be like the because of being in the op he or university.

Lastly, Microsoft’s Azure cognitive Services gave me hard time. Unlike other cloud service providers mentioned above, it doesn’t have a quick demo page where I could simply upload a minute long file to test. So I had to sign-up for Azure services using credit card, email, mobile, & OTP verification, only to find that I am not eligible for their 30 day free trial. I somehow got the free trial after contacting the customer support. After much fooling around Azure Cognitive Services API documentation, I realised that API only allows 10 seconds of audio file (certainly not a tool we are looking for, this one is more suited for command/search). Apparently cris.ai, customspeech.ai does a batch transcription, which is again a lot of efforts. After few RestAPI experiments, I ditched! I may be missing something @Azure for such a simple task, (Please add a comment below if you can guide me to right path, or if you know easier way which I missed). But I think they should have made it simple ready-to-use service/demo.

Finally, I decided to transcribe it myself as none of the above cloud players are up to the mark.Human interpretation *(who knows the context.)
I am trying verbatim here. I must confess, this audio was very tough to crack even for someone who was present in that discussion and recorded it. I can imagine more errors if this assigned to a layman.

...Twenty hundred accelerators. And we are around hundred and fifteen. so almost…
So to the point that, the world’s gonna come in. and we gonna...
..upper game but more importantly, I think it’s huge opportunity for startups.
The third and most interesting thing and I think you’ll speak about it,
Amey, after the DLD festival where we spent some time in Israel, is
India has this unique advantage of building for India and building for world.
We have a domestic economy big enough for you to grow as a startup and it has a
and a global market also I think we need to build for both.
The opportunity that I wanna focus is very different because the reason is these
worlds between the what is different for India different for world is start
blurring after a point because India will be the world. And mutually so bigger the
theme for India is Universal theme.

Surely, above results has some errors as well!Conclusion: Are we there yet? What do you think?

Clearly, you still need human intervention and cannot rely fully (in this case not at all) on these automate services. In Translation job these machines at least aid 50-70% but for transcription we still have a lot to cover (& miles to go 🙂 ).

Each of my four resolution deserves a detailed blogpost with some insights and learning but here’s glimpse of what’s going on and how far I am.

1. Workout & Stay fit: I did a couple of medium treks without a sweat! So, I am fit & have been fit but I had lost a confidence whether I could run/sprint for more than 30 seconds, whether I still have stamina… This resolution was more about joining some gym and getting a proper work-out routine. & yes, I did that. After checking out with dozens of gyms I finally decided on one and started my gym membership. Once on treadmill, I started building my stamina and done some 3-5 minutes sprints. So, there’s some progress there. I haven’t gone into body-building and weight exercise but I’ll start that soon.

2. Alternative Investment: I have been quite active in trading last couple of quarters and have found some unique investment opportunities. Although this is not how I had planned in Jan-2018 of investing in startups like Angels (angel.co) or building a portfolio etc., this definitely falls in alternative investment. And I indeed became on angle for a startup. On a second thought I can still explorer Angelist, that option is open, but the ROI/money is not quick nor guaranteed.

3. Make something: I don’t remember of making something this year. I finally purchased soldering kit & fixed some bluetooth speakers (along with my father, we did it together!!). I also purchased a hot melt glue-gun, but that product is a rip-off. They should remove the word ‘glue’ or I should dig more to get actually sticky cartridge, which would stick like soldering /welding in case of metal. I guess that’s the closes I have been. As far as the open source project goes I haven’t short-listed any idea yet (You can share one). I need to build a shade for car parking that could be my DIY project this year.4. Solid Waste management: When I had posted about it in Jan, I had no clue of how things work, how solid waste it treated/processed/recycled if not sent to dumping ground. I know the seriousness it holds and thus started with first step. Earlier this year, I visited Dharavi’s plastic garbage shredding and recycling industry and bit relieved that there’s hope!

To summarise, I have not reached 50% of goal but the resolutions are still alive and I’m getting there. I should post an update in December before the year ends. Meanwhile if you have any comments to share (especially #2 a startup idea/project, #3 DIY/IoT projects for me, #4 how I can contribute on solid waste management) feel free to email me pranav@amrute.me or post a comment below.

It’s that time of the year when you make yet another new year resolution/s. Mostly it’s the same commitment you make every year and barely mange to complete it. So, do you have anything new this time?
Well, in my case, I’ve thought of something new and I think it’s important for me to put it out here (makes me accountable). I can then look back next year and write couple of follow up posts on the progress on each of projects. This year I am planning to spend quite a bit of my time and money on some personal as well as public projects.

Workout & stay fit: Yeah, the usual one! I know it’s a bit obvious, but this one’s new for me. Crossed 35 and still never been to a gym, never followed a diet or done real physical training. So this is going to be my personal challenge.

Alternative investments: Although, I’ve had worked on startups, and mentored/invested in a few; I never did this professionally. Hence, this year I am planning to do this professionally, a venture capital fund (comes under alternative investment in the fund’s portfolio). This is going to be my professional challenge. To raise funds and build a portfolio of bankable businesses.

Make something: I just love maker‘s community and how they inspire each other to build something new. You can earn millions of dollars in stock trading but nothing gives you more satisfaction than fixing things and creating stuff. This year I am going to make something – a smart automation hardware for me/my house, which others can use. It’ll be an open-source project so others can benefit and improve. This is going to be my community project.

Solid waste management: Last and not the least, the most challenging project I am going to take up is “disposing off garbage”. Yes, and you guessed it right, this one’s my public project. Things that you don’t want, go to the trash bin; but what happens to it next? The rate at which we are consuming materials is way higher than it can be decomposed or recycled. Soon we will end up on acres of land filled with trash. Dumping ground cannot be a permanent solution and I’ve come to realize that this is a grave issue which needs to be taken care on priority. If not, the next generation would have to face the aftermath of our actions, and by then it will be too late.